Sr. Director, CFO Delivery & Methodology
Lead delivery quality across Ignition's CFO portfolio while building the methodology, coaching system, and institutional learning that make the entire bench better.
The Opportunity
Make every Ignition client engagement reliably reach trusted finance readiness and continue receiving excellent CFO delivery, while building the methodology, coaching system, and institutional learning that make the entire CFO bench better.
Ignition has assembled a strong bench of experienced CFOs serving companies across different industries, stages, and financial needs. The opportunity now is to make the collective strength of that bench even more valuable: creating a shared delivery system that helps every CFO begin engagements well, identify risks earlier, learn from peers, and consistently deliver an exceptional client experience.
This is not a conventional client-operations position. You will build the operating model through which an expert CFO organization delivers, learns, and compounds its capabilities.
Ignition is building a model for the future of mid-market finance: exceptional CFO judgment strengthened by shared operating methods, institutional knowledge, and AI-enabled systems. Our CFOs remain accountable for professional judgment, client relationships, and consequential decisions. The platform strengthens their preparation, context, operating memory, coordination, and ability to learn from work performed across the firm.
Ignition is not a staffing marketplace, a loose network of fractional CFOs, or a software company attempting to replace finance professionals. It is a platform-backed finance operating company designed to make excellent CFO judgment more valuable, scalable, and durable.
What You'll Own
Build a delivery system that works without the CEO in the room.
You are accountable for the health and reliability of Ignition's client-delivery portfolio. Individual CFOs retain professional judgment and accountability for their advice; you own the standards, coaching cadence, evidence-backed health reviews, and first-line corrective action that support them.
Portfolio Delivery Health
Maintain one evidence-backed view of onboarding, time to first value, delivery reliability, unresolved commitments, quality risks, utilization, engagement economics, retention risk, and client confidence. Own client satisfaction and serve as the first line of escalation for delivery, scope, and relationship issues.
CFO Bench Development
Build a deliberate development system across one-on-ones, case review, peer learning, methodology training, documented feedback, progression expectations, and coverage planning. Coach CFOs directly and join challenging client calls when senior presence is needed.
Methodology & Delivery Standards
Codify what great looks like from the first client call through QBRs and offboarding. Build practical guides for scope disputes, difficult news, client trust, and other moments where consistent methods improve outcomes without flattening CFO judgment.
First-Line Accountability
Ensure every engagement has a clear owner, defined expectations, a reliable operating cadence, an evidence-backed health status, and a visible path for resolving risk before executive escalation is required.
Delivery Systems Partnership
Translate recurring delivery problems into defined workflow and system opportunities for the Director of Agentic Finance. Help prioritize pilots, then own adoption of proven methods across the CFO bench.
Select Client Work
Serve as a fractional CFO or senior finance advisor on select engagements, including immediate coverage, client relationship resets, and high-stakes situations that benefit from a steady senior presence.
Who You Are
A calm client leader who can make an expert bench stronger.
You have held difficult client relationships together through rough patches and delivered bad news in a way that increased trust. You understand AI well enough to use the systems Ignition is building and believe the shift in finance work is real, even if you are not the person engineering those systems.
You're a fit if you:
- 5+ years in fractional CFO, VP Finance, or senior finance client services, with ownership of client relationships from kickoff through ongoing delivery
- Experience managing or coaching professionals, with accountability for their development and performance
- A record of turning around tense client situations, underperforming engagements, or scope disputes
- Executive presence that earns client confidence from the first conversation
- An operating mindset that spans finance, people management, process design, and client service
- More satisfaction from making a team of CFOs better than from personally executing every deliverable
- Active use of AI in current work and conviction that it will reshape the fractional CFO model
- Evidence that people you coached improved, client handoffs held, and playbooks you built continued to be used
This role is not for you if:
- You have never managed or coached others
- You would rather personally do the client work than build the system that makes everyone else better
- You have never owned a client relationship as the senior-most person accountable
- You are skeptical about AI's impact on fractional finance work or have not started integrating it into how you work
- You want a narrowly defined scope in an environment where client needs and firm priorities move quickly
Your First 90 Days
Establish an evidence-backed view of delivery health across the portfolio, implement a repeatable onboarding and CFO-coaching cadence, clarify escalation and accountability boundaries, reduce executive routing of ordinary delivery issues, and convert at least one recurring delivery need into a reusable method or system with the Director of Agentic Finance.
Part of the Forward Group Ecosystem
Ignition Consultants is part of Forward Group, an ecosystem of expert-led businesses built around a shared belief: human expertise should become more valuable as AI becomes more capable.
Ignition is the finance expression of that thesis. This role will help prove that an expert finance organization can improve consistency, development, and client outcomes without flattening the autonomy and judgment of excellent CFOs.
What We Offer
Responsibility matched with real authority and support.
Competitive Compensation
Competitive base salary commensurate with experience, plus meaningful upside tied to company performance.
W-2 Benefits
Full-time W-2 employment with medical, dental, and vision benefits through our PEO.
A Real Seat at the Table
Serve as the CEO's operational counterpart for client delivery, with authority that matches the responsibility.
Exceptional Relationships
Work at the center of a firm where every client is a serious company and every CFO brings meaningful experience.
A Platform That Compounds
Help shape the methods, systems, integrations, and product roadmap that make excellent CFO delivery more scalable and durable.